The housing market continued to maintain its strength this fall, with pending sales up 17.1 percent in October compared with the same time last year, according to a new report from the Massachusetts Association of Realtors (MAR).

MAR resumed releasing pending sales figures this month after a six-month hiatus due to a change in the way the state’s largest multiple listing service, MLS-PIN, records active listings.

Eric Berman, spokesman for MAR, said the association had been able to work with its third party data vendor to resolve the conflict between the pre-May 2013 method of recording pending sales and the post-May 2013 method, and was now confident that its numbers were accurate. Using the fresh calculations, MAR said that this October is the eighth-straight month of year-over-year increases in pending sales

The number of condominiums put under agreement in October was also up for the 30th-straight month.

"With a very active spring and summer and then government shutdown this fall, it was a very positive sign to see the number of homes put under agreement in October go up compared to last year," 2013 MAR President Kimberly Allard-Moccia, broker-owner of Century 21 Professionals in Braintree, said in a statement.

Single-family homes put under agreement in October rose to 4,793 homes in 2013 from 4,094 homes in October 2012. On a month-to-month basis, single-family homes put under agreement were up 11.6 percent, compared with 4,297 homes put under agreement in September 2013.

The number of condos put under agreement rose to 1,853 units in October 2013 from 1,519 units in 2012. On a month-to-month basis, condos put under agreement went up 7.1 percent from 1,731 units in September 2013.